My Dress-Up Darling's 5th Anniversary Exhibition Shows the Hand-Made Artistry of the Series

My Dress-Up Darling is a series that has captured the hearts of people worldwide. There's nothing sweeter than watching a relationship between two nerds bloom while they support each other's hobbies in a way that lets them blossom. Whether you're watching the anime or reading the manga, you can't help but fall in love with Kitagawa and Gojo...well, falling in love.  To celebrate the anniversary of the manga's debut in 2018, the My Dress-Up Darling 5th Anniversary Exhibition began in Ginza, Tokyo in August 2023. For the next two years, as the exhibition toured around Japan, the manga continued to print new chapters and the exhibition grew as Kitagawa and Gojo got closer. Over the New Year, the exhibition made its final stop and returned to Tokyo, but settled in a location near dear to the series — Ikebukuro. The area, especially the Sunshine City complex where the exhibition was held, is a natural host for My Dress-Up Darling as it's where cosplayers gather for events and collect the material for their outfits — a topic I explored back in 2022 in a feature for this very site ! As we explore the exhibition, there will be spoilers for the manga for those who have only watched the anime. Don't worry though, they will be noted! The Budding Romance of My Dress-Up Darling The My Dress-Up Darling 5th Anniversary Exhibition was a complete celebration of manga and cosplay as a medium. Each section was split up not by arcs but by Kitagawa and friends' costumes. Alongside manga panels set up around the space, recreations of every outfit that Kitagawa wore throughout the series were also on display. That began with Kitagawa's first "outfit," her first attempt at a costume and the one that Gojo walked in on her trying on. It'd been a while since I had read the first few chapters and even longer since I watched the first episode of the anime, so a flood of memories came back as I saw the manga pages surrounding the makeshift costume. Seeing it in person makes sense as to why it was best Gojo re-made it to become Kuroe Shizuku. This is where the entire exhibition opens up into a massive room, leading to the last major arc when the exhibition first opened in 2023 — Kogami Rei.  Each area followed the same pattern: full-colored illustrations of Kitagawa, followed by some manga panels that featured essential moments, amazing recreations of the costumes Kitagawa wears and, surprisingly, key props from the arc including materials to make the outfit and even Gojo's reference sketches.  These items were one of the most interesting parts of the whole exhibition, making the world of My Dress-Up Darling feel grounded. Each costume also felt personally made rather than professionally, like you'd see in cosplay shops in Ikebukuro. It gave the feeling as if they jumped out of the pages and were on display. Punctuated between each of the costumes were displays from key moments of the series: the iconic beach scene, summer fireworks festival and other certain spoiler-y scenes that recently occurred in the manga. All these were given well-deserved sections despite being relatively small yet very plot-relevant moments. Even the smaller cosplays, like Veronica and Liz, were given their time to shine at the exhibition. My favorite section of the whole event was the festival wall. The festival episode of the anime was one of the series' best; a perfect culmination of everything that came before it. So much so that I actually visited the real-life Iwatsuki Festival to walk around and soak in the My Dress-Up Darling goodness. The panel wall with Gojo carrying Kitagawa was magical to see in such extensive detail.  Going Past the My Dress-Up Darling Anime This is where the anime story ends ( for now! ), but Gojo and Kitagawa's hasn’t. So, there be spoilers from here on out.  After some smaller stories featuring some gorgeous modeling shots, Kitagawa in a bunny suit and the expansion of the group of cosplay friends, the most significant arc of the series thus far comes to the stage. School festivals are a staple of any youthful manga series, and My Dress-Up Darling pulls it off by flipping the reader's expectations of Kitagawa's cosplays on their head. Gone are the tight suits that show off a bit more of Kitagawa than Gojo is comfortable with, and in are suits and cross-dressing.  Speaking about Gojo's comfortability, this was the arc that really tested him, giving him some of the lowest lows and the highest highs as a character. I can't help but love that the climax of the arc isn't just Kitagawa's cosplay, but also Gojo making more friends in his class (which thankfully got its own deserved display here). This led to the final major arc that was featured in the original exhibition in 2023 — Rose in the Coffin Arc. Instead of being in the main hall with the rest of the series, the Coffin Arc was delegated to a gothic, dark room with candles on the wall. My Dress-Up Darling Exhibition Looking Forward When the My Dress-Up Darling 5th Anniversary manga exhibition began in 2023, Kitagawa's journey of cosplaying Haniel from Mandate of Heaven had only begun. Now, at its last stop, the manga shot past the arc and into new territory, introducing a brand new area for the first time. By far the most impressive area of the whole exhibition, the Haniel costume was in the center of a circular room surrounded by Kitagawa and Gojo's process of creating the outfit just in time for Winter Comiket — which coincidentally occurred during this exhibition's run!  What was interesting was the in-progress pages from the arc displayed to the side. This was the first time Fukuda's drafts were on display, likely because the exhibition was already running while these pages were made and prepped for this area rather than the rest of the series thus far. All the manga pages and panels shown were very detailed digital prints of the manga, so it was special to see the physically drawn pages. The final story section of the exhibition gave us a detailed look at the manga's biggest moment thus far. Again, there are significant spoilers for where the manga is up to in the story: Gojo and Kitagawa finally become a couple. Following the story section was one last cosplay outfit — the one made specifically for the exhibition. The area showed the process Fukuda drew the original illustration for the event, featuring Gojo painting Kitagawa's lip while she wears a traditional Japanese dress.  The area also included some of the earliest stages of Fukuda's production process, including doodles and some of the final stages with full-color paintings from various parts of the manga. As with every manga exhibition I've been to, the color page reproductions are breathtaking. Fukuda's illustrations are some of the most interesting I've seen, though, as she has her usual My Dress-Up Darling style plays with it a bit, sometimes leaning into a more pop art or even going more realistic.  In any case, Fukuda's drawings are never dull to look at, and this exhibition just shows the breath of creativity in the mind of the My Dress-Up Darling creator. A mind able to weave a thread of complete cosplay faithfulness while setting the stage for one of the most wholesome romance manga of this generation. 

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